Status Updates From 설국

“you can’t go losing your head over every man that likes you.”

A journey by train seems like a romantic start to the story, and already has a mysterious woman reflected in the passenger car’s window to suggest more to come for Shimamura. His behaviour at the hot spring, both arriving in December and flashing back to his earlier initial visit, shows that this married man is far from the yearning protagonist such books might portray. Instead he is a bit of an unreliable tourist.